The Gift
by ShinkisRule
Summary: The story of the Key and Glorificus in the form of an epic.


**We had to write an epic for English… Our teacher said we could rewrite a piece of fiction if we wanted to. So I couldn't not do this. :D BEST. ASSIGNMENT. EVER. B) I had a 100 line limit, so I had to skip a few details, lol. Thus I didn't really go into Ben at all. But I think the general idea came across. Plus you all are whedonists, so you know this. Heehee. But my teacher isn't. Thus the lengthy setup and shtuffumz.**

The Gift

Glorificus once was a goddess of old  
>Who reigned in a world run by demons and death.<br>Beside her were others who shared in her power,  
>But they could not contain all her bloodlust and wrath.<br>A war was declared over who took the throne  
>In the deities' fear of forsaking their crowns,<br>And Glorificus fell, for all three of them knew  
>It was one against two, and as strong as she was,<br>From the beginning it seemed she had lost.  
>The goddess was sent to a pitiful place,<br>Though you and I think it an adequate home,  
>She was cut down to a powerless creature,<br>Unable to rule, or to ravage or kill.  
>Known only as That Which Cannot Be Named,<br>Her spirit lay silent for years to come.

Her world and ours were just two among millions,  
>And the Void was a barrier that bound them apart.<br>Some spells here and there were dimensional doors,  
>But the Void was ceaselessly sealed by the Key.<br>As Glorificus conquered her humanly form  
>(Though still she would falter from human to god),<br>She sought out the Key, in her sickness of Earth  
>And her hunger for chaos consuming each world.<br>But the Order of Dagon, aware she'd awakened,  
>Concealed the Key using ancient spells<br>To give it the form of a frail human child,  
>Woven into history as family to the Slayer,<br>Who thought that her sister had always been there.

Now the Slayer was given a gift long before.  
>It was she who was destined to face the unknown,<br>The demons, the vampires, the monsters of myth.  
>To each generation a Slayer is born.<br>Young Buffy Summers was our Chosen One,  
>With a mentor and friends who would help her to fight,<br>But the weight of the world was still hers alone.

When given the news that her dear sister Dawn  
>Was borne from her blood by the Dagon monks,<br>Buffy swore to protect her, now more than ever,  
>For the fate of the world lay with her and the Key,<br>And the hell-goddess knew not what form it had taken,  
>So the vampire slayer kept this secret from all.<br>Dawn always did feel like she didn't belong.  
>But her life was a lie – what a shock it would be<br>When the little lost girl found that she was the Key.

The goddess did have a single advantage:  
>The Key could be sensed by those outside the world,<br>In other words, people whose minds were destroyed.  
>And Glorificus fed off of this very thing,<br>So consuming their sanity not only sustained her,  
>But gave her an army to find her the Key.<br>And since Buffy was safeguarding Dawn with her life,  
>They were never so near her to see her true form<br>Until the Slayer's friend Tara was driven to madness.  
>At just the wrong place at just the wrong time,<br>Glorificus saw Tara, Tara saw Dawn  
>And all was revealed, and all too soon<br>Dawn was taken away, Buffy left all alone  
>With the Void to be opened in a matter of hours.<br>There awaited a ritual for the pending apocalypse,  
>In which Dawn would stand over the mouth of the Void,<br>As her blood would flow into it, all worlds would end,  
>Unless somehow the blood could stop flowing forever.<br>The Slayer knew only one way this could be.  
>Buffy couldn't kill Dawn, and was lost in the thought<br>That there was no other way to rescue us all.

But the ritual had a limited time,  
>And once its hour had come and gone,<br>The Key would revert to simply Dawn,  
>On the condition that the ritual never commenced.<br>So the Slayer and all needed only to stall,  
>Until the Key's power had perished at last.<br>Tara, still missing the mind she once had,  
>Could lead them straight to the location of Dawn,<br>On a tower hovered over the heart of the Void.  
>The goddess was waiting for Buffy below it,<br>In need of another mind to devour.  
>Buffy struck at the weakened Glorificus<br>While the others held back the army from Dawn.

With one blow, Glorificus was knocked to the ground,  
>And the Slayer immediately ran for the tower.<br>But in seconds the goddess was back on her feet,  
>And she chased after Buffy to the top of the tower.<br>In the midst of their struggle, they both fell together,  
>And as the battle went on to get back up again,<br>One who worshipped the hell-god was already with Dawn,  
>Preparing his knife to cut through her flesh.<p>

As Glorificus reverted to humanly form,  
>Buffy spared her from death and ran back to save Dawn.<br>But her Watcher refused to see the goddess return,  
>And with one hand he held back the human from breathing.<br>So ended the human, so ended the god.

Buffy ran to Dawn's side, but the blood had poured down  
>To the mouth of the Void, and the end had begun.<br>As the Key was bleeding into the Void,  
>The dimensions were bleeding into each other.<br>Dawn was willing to give up her life for the world,  
>But the Slayer could never allow her to die.<p>

Dawn was her sister, made from her blood.  
>They were one and the same. There was one other choice.<br>Buffy's blood was the same as the Key's,  
>She could die in her place.<p>

"Listen to me," said the Slayer to Dawn,  
>"I love you now and I always will.<br>But this is my destiny – death is my gift.  
>Take care of my friends. Let them take care of you.<br>You have to be strong, for me and for them.  
>The hardest thing in this world is to live in it, Dawn…<br>Be brave and live… For me."

With those words, Buffy kissed her sister goodbye.  
>She leapt off of the tower and stopped the blood flowing.<br>The Void was closed, the Key was no more,  
>And with the death of the Slayer came the life of us all.<p> 


End file.
